Railway vehicles such as locomotives and cars of all types pulled by such locomotives are usually comprised of a main body provided with body bolsters each of which has a body center plate and each body center plate serves to transfer the load of the body to an associated truck which rides on the usual railroad tracks. Each truck is provided with a truck bolster and a bolster bowl usually defined by a truck center plate having an upstanding peripheral flange. Each body center plate is received within an associated flange and supported by the associated truck center plate such that the entire load of the car body is transmitted through the center plates.
With this type of construction the center plates and associated parts are subjected to substantial operating loads. In addition, such center plates and associated parts are subjected to foreign objects including sand, grit, weld spatter, and the like requiring frequent expensive lubrication and comparatively frequent replacement of worn and damaged parts.
Heretofore, the main thrust in attempting to reduce the severity of the wear problem between center plate structures has been to provide so-called metal liner having substantially greater hardness than the center plate structures themselves in an effort to reduce wear and minimize damage by foreign objects.
However, even with the provision of such hard metal liners the basic problem of excessive wear of metal parts still exists.